


Fade to Crimson (I know your name)

by Starrie_Wolf



Category: Bleach
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, BAMF Urahara Kisuke, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Reinvention of canon, Rewrites of canon fight scenes, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-14 22:26:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14778440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starrie_Wolf/pseuds/Starrie_Wolf
Summary: Ichigo’s a relative newcomer at the Seireitei Shatterdome, but he’s settled into the steady pace of his work fine, even made some friends.There’s just one thing.The guy who’s got the room next to his, Ichigo’s never seen him anywhere else. He’s not with the rest of the Jaeger pilot-cadets, he’s not with the mechanics when Ichigo swings by to lend them a hand, he’s not with the scientists when Ichigo ends up having to deliver something-or-other to the research labs.It’s like, to the rest of the Shatterdome, Kisuke doesn’t exist.





	1. Chapter 1

The door swings open.

“Really, Ichigo-san.” Kisuke sounds exasperated, but there’s no hiding the vaguely fond expression on his face. “What has my poor door ever done to you?”

Ichigo shrugs a shoulder, careful not to spill anything that he’s holding. “It got in my way.” He edges past Kisuke, setting the tray down on the table. “You’re lucky I didn’t kick it down.”

“Much obliged,” Kisuke returns drily, as if the door in question isn’t made of thrice-reinforced titasteel, the same material they make the Jaegers with.

He shoves a cookie at Kisuke, biting into another one himself. Chad’s boss looks really scary (seriously, how does a grown man in corntails look _scary_ in a _leather apron_?!), but he’s a really dedicated mechanic, and he bakes a mean cookie.

He’s even heard that Tessai used to be a Jaeger pilot himself, even though nobody seems to know how or why or even when he stopped. Ichigo chalks it up to the rumour mill. After all, those scars _could_ be from a Hollow, or it could be from the many, _many_ Jaeger projects.

“Tessai-san made too much again?” Kisuke enquires lightly, taking the proffered treat. Their fingers brush; Ichigo tries not to think too much into it.

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Chad boxed up a couple for me, before the rest of the mechanics can finish them all.”

“And you decided to share your hard-won loot with little old me?” Kisuke grins, snapping that annoying fan open. Ichigo kind of wants to snatch it away and bash him over the head with it.

He desists, but only barely.

It’s a rare free day, what with all the escalating Breach events lately, a new Garganta ripping open almost as soon as they manage to seal the previous one back up. That’s unprecedented, is what Ichigo’s been given to understand. He’s only been at the Seireitei Shatterdome for about half a year, unlike most of the others who’ve been around for years, or even born on-base like Jinta and Ururu. There’s a lot of insider information that they take for granted, but which he hadn’t been privy to.

Ichigo breathes in the aroma of the tea, leaning back in his armchair.

He feels like an outsider, an invader, but he knows why he’s doing this, knows that he _must_ do this. He’s wanted to be a Jaeger pilot ever since he was nine, when his mother tackled him out of the way of a rampaging Hollow and was knocked into the sea.

It’s been eleven years since then, but the war against Hueco Mundo still rages on, as fierce as ever. Humanity clings to the Jaegers as their last hope.

And the best engineers, the best scientists have delivered, time after time. The First Generation of Jaegers were clunky machines that required two individuals in perfect harmony to successfully pilot in synchrony, for they were so complex that a single human brain can’t handle that much input. But since then, the Jaegers have evolved, until nowadays they’re single-pilot killer machines that can fuse with each other whenever needed, giving them the freedom to adapt to the ever-changing battlefield.

Ichigo had actually gone down to the mechanics’ earlier to test drive the new mods for his _Zangetsu_ ; it just so happened that Chad had some cookies for him.

He chews slowly.

Yuzu had loved to bake too.

Still loves to bake, probably, though he hasn’t seen her and Karin for months.

There’s a letter from them tucked under his pillow right now, just sent several weeks previous. The thought of his sisters makes something in his heart ache furiously, but he’s doing this to protect them, and they understand and support his decision, as hard as it is.

“They’ll be fine.”

“How did you know –” Ichigo scrubs a hand down his face, awkward and kind of embarrassed. Is it _that_ obvious?

Kisuke quirks his lips. “It’s written all over your face, Ichigo-san.”

Ichigo glances away, embarrassed.

Thinking of his mother, though, inevitably reminded him of the Jaeger that saved not only his life, but that of his sisters.

He knows exactly which one it is, of course. It’s a First Generation that’s been decommissioned in the interim years, but it’s still parked at the back of the Shatterdome, in the section designated as a museum for the public.

Ichigo wonders who piloted it.

He’s asked around, in the past year, but nobody seems to know.

But maybe Kisuke might. “Hey, you’ve been here for years, haven’t you?” Ichigo asks.

Over the rim of his teacup, Kisuke raises his eyebrows at him. Ichigo takes that as assent.

“Do you know who were the pilots of _Benihime_?”

Slowly, Kisuke sets his teacup down.

Ichigo can feel hope rising in his chest. “That reaction – you _do_ know, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Kisuke finally answers, tone hesitant, but that’s more confirmation than Ichigo’s ever had on the topic.

“You don’t have to tell me who they are,” he assures, leaning forwards. “If nobody knows who they are, they probably have really good reasons for it. All I want – all I’ve ever wanted – was to tell them ‘thank you’.”

Kisuke studies his face for another moment, and then nods. “I’ll let them know,” he promises.

Ichigo can’t stop the blinding smile stretching across his face.

~*~*~*~*~

Byakuya looks much like he always did, even when he’s lying motionless in a hospital bed.

Renji’s sitting vigil by his bedside today, Ichigo notes as he approaches. He must have sent Rukia back to rest for the moment – somehow. Or maybe Unohana kicked her out.

“How is he?”

Renji’s eyes flicker open. “Doing as well as can be expected.” From up close, Ichigo can spot the shadows under Renji’s eyes, the exhaustion writ all over his face. Half his hair’s fallen out of its usual topknot, but Renji neither seems to know nor care.

Putting a hand on his shoulder, Ichigo gives it a gentle squeeze.

Renji exhales, long and slow. “Thanks.” He tips sideways, leaning into Ichigo with the easy kind of familiarity only a drift-mate has.

Although perfect drift compatibility is no longer required, Jaeger fusion still requires _some_ degree of compatibility amongst pilots, in order for the fused Mega-Jaeger to function as one unit. Ichigo’s highest neural matches, back when he first joined the Seireitei Shatterdome, were with Rukia and Renji – and, for some reason, Hirako Shinji, the Grand Marshal of the Visored Shatterdome.

Ichigo’s never drifted with Byakuya before, but he’s spent so much time inside Rukia and Renji’s heads that Byakuya might as well be family to him.

“Listen, Ichigo –” Renji begins.

The alarms begin blaring, drowning out whatever Renji’s been about to say. They exchange a look of perfect understanding.

Renji nods at him.

“Go!”

~*~*~*~*~

Ichigo skids into the control centre barely five minutes later, still trying to shove his arms into the uniform jacket.

He stops cold.

Red dots are flashing all over the screens, each of them indicative of a new Garganta.

At least a quarter of the oceans are _covered_ in red.

“Good, you’re here.” Marshal-assist Ise Nanao appears by his side, beginning with no aplomb. “We’re sending you out to Hong Kong to assist the Visoreds.”

Ichigo nods. He’s seen them fight, even sparred with them a few times previously. Their fighting styles are similar enough that Ichigo would be a good fit.

“You know the drill. We’re sending Kuchiki and Abarai out to relieve you in forty-eight hours.” Nanao turns away, already barking new orders at the nearest technician.

Ichigo knows a dismissal when he sees one.

~*~*~*~*~

According to his HUD, he’s arriving on the tail end of the first wave. Ichigo peers through _Zangetsu’s_ viewscreen, seeing _Sakanade_ -and- _Kubikiri_ harrying at the largest of the Hollows in the distance. They look like they’ve got things well in hand over there.

He skids to a stop in front of _Hachigyō_ instead. “Need a hand?”

Hachi’s face pops up in a video chat to the side of his HUD. “Please.” The barrier expert wipes at his brow. “More processing power is always welcome.”

 _Zangetsu_ was a Jaeger built for pure _speed_ – it carries the latest, the lightest power generators, operating at a capacity that the older models the Visoreds use can’t hope to match.

“Much obliged,” Hachi tells him as their Jaegers join up. He snaps his fingers, barriers flickering into existence all around the Garganta, keeping it contained.

Ichigo turns _Zangetsu’s_ viewscreen away, scanning behind them in case an opportune Hollow decides to sneak up on them. He can still hear the occasional ‘pop’ behind him as Hachi begins to seal the Garganta back up, but in no time at all they are done.

“Good job, everyone,” Shinji calls over the comms.

Panting, Ichigo lets the fusion fade, detaching _Zangetsu’s_ fuel cables from _Hachigyō_.

He can do with some food, he thinks.

~*~*~*~*~

There’s two hours to dinner.

Ichigo flips his phone open, and then shuts it again.

He can call – no, Karin has soccer practice right now, and Yuzu will be at the supermarket picking up ingredients for dinner. He has no doubt either of them will pick up if he called, but he doesn’t want to interrupt their daily routines with worry about him. Just the thought of Yuzu trying to juggle her phone with a multitude of bags makes him flip his phone shut again.

He’s jittery, still coming down from the adrenaline high of the battle. Some pilots crash right after every fight, but Ichigo just gets anxious instead, watching his phone ping continuously with alerts from fights going on in other parts of the world.

He can’t be everywhere at once.

“Hello?”

Ichigo jumps, and nearly drops his phone. He must’ve –

“Hello?” Kisuke repeats. “Ichigo-san, are you there?”

He brings the phone up to his ear. “Yeah,” he sighs.

He throws himself down on his bed.

“Good job today,” Kisuke tells him, voice warm and affectionate, and it sends something aflutter in the pit of his belly.

Ichigo ignores it with the ease of long practice, rolling over onto his side.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

He clears his throat. “How’s – how’s things at home?”

“All clear here,” Kisuke reassures. “Light bruises only, and your friend Kuchiki managed to break her cryo-gun, but no one got hurt. In fact, she might have done us all a favour – the ocean’s so frozen over, we won’t be getting a Garganta there any time soon.”

“Oh,” Ichigo hears himself say. “That’s good, then.” Rukia must’ve been really worried about Byakuya, if she’s pulling stupid stunts like that.

“Indeed,” Kisuke sounds quietly satisfied, and it makes Ichigo flush. He’s suddenly really glad he didn’t hit the video call button.

Damned hormones.

“I’ll be attached to the Visoreds for a while longer,” he tells Kisuke. He’s not sure why he feels the need to say that; it’s not like Kisuke is his minder or his boyfriend.

Kisuke seems to understand the sentiment behind those words anyway. “I look forward to your return, Ichigo-san.”

His cheeks don’t stop burning for a _long_ time.

~*~*~*~*~

As if to make up for Seireitei’s good fortune, Gargantas flood the skies everywhere else, and Ichigo doesn’t get another respite like his first day in Hong Kong again.

Rukia texts him that she’s still waiting for them to fix _Shirayuki_ before she can go out again, but Byakuya’s up and about now.

Renji texts him that they’ll probably get deployed soon, although Byakuya might be held back a while longer.

Kisuke texts him a photo of some half-eaten cookies. The bastard.

“Pay attention, Baldy!”

Ichigo curses, sending _Zangetsu_ into a controlled spin, narrowly avoiding being speared through.

Lisa takes a swing at it as it careens by her, but _Haguro’s_ spear bounces harmlessly off its thick scaly armour.

“Warning: Menos incoming!”

Shinji spits out a curse, wheeling _Sakanade_ around. “Okay, double-time this one, engage MASK!”

As far as Ichigo knows, MASK is a thing that’s unique to the Visored Shatterdome, and it’s what lets them survive in one of the Garganta hotspots with just eight Jaegers. He also doesn’t know why Shinji agreed to upgrade _Zangetsu_ with a MASK module, but he’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Maybe it has to do with how drift-compatible he and Shinji are?

Well, better MASK than whatever Aizen and Szayel have cooked up at the Espada Shatterdome over in Lima. Ichigo shudders a little at the thought. They’ve somehow managed to fuse Jaeger tech with parts scavenged from Hollow corpses, producing organic cyborg nightmares.

Everyone agrees that the Espada are a little insane.

Ichigo hits the lever to engage MASK on _Zangetsu_ , speed-keying his way into the system. Infra-red scanners are already up, as is the radar on his HUD, but they don’t always detect the Hollows accurately; apparently some of them are reptilian in nature and don’t produce body heat.

Still, some warning is better than none, even if Seireitei’s resident mad scientist Kurotsuchi Mayuri will disagree. He’s been trying to develop a Hollow-specific scanner for years, but nobody’s been able to bring him enough samples of pheromones or whatever from a quiescent Hollow. Last Ichigo heard, from Kisuke of all people, Kurotsuchi’s so frustrated that he’s built his own Jaeger with a remote-controlled AI and plans to send that into the field himself.

“Your nine o’ clock, Ichigo!”

“Thanks, Rose!”

Ichigo twists away, _Zangetsu_ responding to every minute twitch in his muscles like it’s an extension of himself, sword already unsheathed with a twitch of his fingers.

“Getsuga _Tensh_ _ō_!”

He aims a scanner at the corpse to make sure it’s dead, and not just playing possum, but most of his attention’s on the HUD. That Menos should have come through by now…

“Warning, warning,” barks a voice he doesn’t recognise. “Menos grade identified: Adjuchas!”

A category _four_? Ichigo purses his lips, glancing again at the HUD to check everyone’s positions. _Zangetsu_ is small and fast, but against something like a category four, sometimes inertia isn’t enough to seal the deal.

“On it,” reports Kensei. _Tachikaze_ barrels past, already fused with Mashiro’s Jaeger, and after a split second Ichigo follows them.

A new orange pin pops up on his HUD, labelled _Menos: Adjuchas_. Ichigo frowns at it as he runs. For some reason, it’s not making its way to shore like the others, it’s just sitting deep in the South China Sea.

Doesn’t matter. They’ll just have to defeat this one too.

“Incoming!”

Ichigo’s head jerks up in surprise, his steps slowing. “Rukia?” he demands.

Sure enough, her face pops up to the side of his HUD. “Hey, Ichigo.”

“Yo,” adds Renji.

Ichigo shades _Zangetsu’s_ viewscreen with one metallic arm, until he can spot the helicopters whirring in the distance, dropping their Jaegers off. “Welcome on board,” he tells them automatically.

“Let’s go kick some Hollow ass,” Rukia responds, _Shirayuki_ glittering a blinding white under the noon sun. Her cryo-gun’s tucked into its usual holster. Tessai-san must’ve pulled a total _miracle_ to get it fixed so fast.

Fusing with _Shirayuki_ and _Zabimaru_ comes as naturally as breathing, these days. Ichigo wheels their fusion unit around, plunging deeper into the waters. “Kensei?” he calls into the comms, trying to alert the other man that backup is coming, if he’s fighting so furiously that he can’t spare a moment to check the HUD.

No response comes.

That doesn’t seem right. Ichigo checks his HUD again, and yeah, Kensei-and-Mashiro are up ahead, although their fused Jaeger doesn’t seem to be moving –

“Kensei? Kensei, Mashiro, do you copy?” Shinji barks into the comms.

“No sign of them,” Ichigo reports after another terse moment of silence.

Renji digs his heels into the sand, stopping their forward progress. Rukia shifts her hand to her gun.

“Ichigo, Kuchiki, Abarai, hang back a moment,” Shinji orders. “Wait for us before you go in.”

Ichigo disagrees. “They aren’t moving – they might really need our help right now!”

Apparently he’s not the only one to think so.

“Hiyori, wait!”

 _Kubikiri_ blows past them, MASK engaged, a visible slipstream trailing behind it. Renji mutters a curse as he digs _Zabimaru’s_ sword into the sand, barely keeping them from being blown away.

Ichigo’s looking up, though, so he’s the only one to spot the white blob shooting through the water, so fast that Hiyori doesn’t even have time to dodge. She takes the hit head-on, and the white substance envelopes her almost immediately after.

Her comms cut off mid-curse.

“HIYORI!”

“It’s some kind of…” Ichigo struggles to come up with a decent description.

“Some kind of white gooey substance just enveloped her Jaeger,” reports Rukia, her thoughts sliding across the surface of Ichigo’s mind like waves lapping against a shore. She skims through the memory of the attack, but she too draws a blank.

“I think it’s disabling our Jaegers,” offers Renji. He yanks _Zabimaru’s_ sword out of the ground, but doesn’t sheathe it.

“Right,” Shinji says grimly, as the rest of the Visoreds finally reach their position. “Hachi, prepare your barriers. Rose, see if you can whip any other attacks like that one out of the way before it hits one of us. The rest of you, fuse your Jaegers, we’re going in.”

“Hold on a moment!”

Ichigo almost trips over a loose boulder. He _knows_ that voice.

He can’t imagine why it would be coming over his comms, though.

“Attention all pilots. By now, most of you will have encountered a new species of Menos that has the ability to disable your Jaeger. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage. This is a trap.”

_Kisuke?!_

Rukia pounces on that stray thought. “That guy you’ve been seeing?” she demands over the internal speaker.

Ichigo flushes at the sudden spike of interest from Renji. “Ichigo’s seeing someone?”

“Nevermind that!” he yelps. “Shouldn’t we focus on the more important things now? Like, how did he get a hold of Control’s comms?” As far as everyone knows, only the overall command centre at each Shatterdome has the capability to override every Jaeger’s comms like that.

There’s a flood of background noise, pilots and admin staff yelling at each other, demanding to know who he is, what authority he has, how he managed to hack into everyone’s comms –

“Visoreds, pull back,” Shinji orders.

His voice isn’t particularly loud, but he’s also sent a live visual verification along with it, and the combination cuts through the comm chatter like a knife.

“Visored Shatterdome, standing by.” He even has the audacity to _salute_ , the faintest hint of a smirk on his face.

Ichigo’s mouth drops open.

“You better have a really good plan,” grumbles Ishida Ryūken, Grand Marshal of the Quincy Shatterdome, his vaguely annoyed visage popping up on their HUDs. “Quincies, hold your fire.”

What.

What the.

“This – this is a joke, right?” Renji hisses.

No one else is talking now.

Ichigo can’t breathe.

Exactly _who_ is Kisuke?

He hears Kisuke exhale, just a soft sigh, but it’s deafening loud in the silence. “Yoruichi-san, _please_.”

For a moment, there is no other sound.

Then –

“Seireitei Shatterdome, stand by for further instructions,” orders Shihōin Yoruichi, Grand Marshal of Japan.

Everyone’s gone mad, that’s the only possible explanation. Nothing even makes sense anymore.

“Who the hell _is_ this guy?” Rukia growls. Ichigo has no doubt that she’ll be shaking him if that’s physically possible right now, and is glad they’re separated by at least six layers of titasteel.

“I don’t know!” Ichigo retorts. “I always thought he’s, like, support personnel or a family member of one of the officers or something; I’ve never seen him in any of the departments before!”

But he addresses the Grand Marshal of the biggest Shatterdome in the world by name, and at least two other Grand Marshals recognised him by voice alone. And it _has_ to be voice – unlike every Grand Marshal who’s spoken so far, Kisuke hadn’t chosen to turn on his live video feed.

“Well, certainly.” Ichigo’s always thought Aizen Sōsuke sounds a little like a used car salesman, slick and oily. On their screens, Aizen smiles thinly. “If the illustrious Urahara Kisuke deigns to speak after this long, _long_ period of silence, we will certainly listen.”

Rukia’s shriek nearly shatters Ichigo’s eardrums and possibly several glass components.

“ _You’re dating the founder of the Jaeger Programme?!_ ”

Ichigo shakes his head, as much to dispel the ringing in his ears, as it is to refute her outrageous claim. “I’m not dating – the who, now?”

Now even Renji’s sending him feelings of outrage. “Urahara? _The_ Urahara, one of the co-creators of the Seireitei Shatterdome?”

“Nobody’s heard from him in years!” exclaims Rukia.

“We all thought he’d –” Ichigo could almost feel the jerk of Renji’s head“– yanno. His Jaeger’s still parked at the back of the garage, in the museum.”

“Wait, the Jaeger in the museum – _Benihime_ is _his_ Jaeger?!” _Benihime_ , a pure predator with its sleek chrome finish and deadly angles, versus his scruffy, unkempt neighbour? Ichigo would’ve thought it’s a joke, except he can’t sense any bubbling laughter from either Renji or Rukia.

“Yeah – remember, Renji? His co-pilot had to retire due to injury? That’s when he turned his energy towards building single-pilot Jaegers?” Rukia’s eyes are fairly sparkling now.

“Of course I remember,” Renji mutters, digging at one ear. “Seriously, woman, control your volume.”

“Can you get me his autograph?” Rukia turns on Ichigo, like she didn’t even hear Renji.

“Er,” Ichigo says.

She pouts at him, eyes large and suddenly filled with unshed tears.

Ichigo pinches the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

Rukia beams at him.

Ichigo shudders. He’s still trying to compute this reality himself, one where his neighbour, the guy he may or may not be developing feelings for, is the founder of the entire Jaeger Programme, and apparently the saviour of humanity. That _does_ explain the strange look on Kisuke’s face when Ichigo asked if he knew who the pilots of _Benihime_ were. Of course he’d know, if he was one of them.

Though, if his co-pilot was badly injured while they were in a full neural net drift…

He thinks of the cane Kisuke carries around, thinks of the times he’s seen Kisuke stumble, like an echo of a limp.

Psychogenic? Residual from the drift?

_I look forward to your return, Ichigo-san._

Ichigo breathes out. They certainly have a lot to talk about.

He tunes back into the conversation over the comms.

“– weakness is at the neck, between the armoured plates on the head and torso,” Kisuke is explaining, voice crisp and confident. “You’ll either need someone who can freeze or melt the disabling fluid, or someone fast enough that they can dodge it.”

“Where have you been, if I may ask?”

Ichigo scrunches his nose up at Aizen’s tone, but in the next moment Kisuke’s face finally pops up on his HUD, and the dark bags under the blond’s eyes steal all his breath away.

Kisuke snaps his fan open, tapping at his lip. “Why, reverse-engineering the Gargantas so that we can take the fight to them, of course.”

~*~*~*~*~

There’s an instant uproar after he drops that particular bomb.

Kisuke nods at the technician standing beside him. Akon exhales, stubbing his cigarette on the nearby ashtray, and dials the speakers down.

He allows himself a brief glance at the little dot labelled _Zangetsu_ , standing in the middle of the South China Sea, overlapped with two other dots labelled _Shirayuki_ and _Zabimaru_.

“Once everyone has defeated these disablers,” he speaks into the microphone, “we can prepare to take the fight to them – and end this war once and for all.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Yoruichi-sama!”

It seems that their luck isn’t going to last. The frozen ocean crackles in warning, inky darkness spilling over the ice.

Yoruichi curses.

“All our Jaegers are out at the moment; the nearest are in Hong Kong.” Her knuckles are white. “Even if we sent for them now, they won’t make it in time.”

A red dot blinks into existence. It’s a Menos. Of course it is.

“I can go.”

She turns around at the voice, unsurprised that he’s managed to make it this far. “Byakuya-bo...”

Byakuya straightens, as though she didn’t just catch him leaning against the wall for support. “ _Senbonzakura_ is a ranged-type, I wouldn’t need to move as much,” he counters, like he can see the objections written all over her face.

“Fine,” she snaps out, waving a hand.

“If he’s going, I’m going as well.”

Yoruichi gives in to the urge to rub her forehead. “Tōshirō, you’re _fifteen_.”

“And I already have my own Jaeger,” he shoots back, arms crossed over his chest. “Kuchiki can barely move; he needs someone to watch his back.”

Kisuke puts a hand on her arm. “Let him,” he whispers into her ear. “He’ll just sneak out anyway if you try to stop him. Better give him all the support you can instead.”

Yoruichi can feel a massive headache coming on.

“ _Fine_ ,” she bites out. “ _Senbonzakura_ , _Hyōrinmaru_ – you’re cleared for launch.”

~*~*~*~*~

Ichigo doesn’t realise he’s already made a decision until he’s vocalising it.

“I need to go back.”

Renji and Rukia stare at him.

“What? How?”

“I’m smaller and faster; I can run in that direction, and the helicopters can pick me up halfway; I’ll be back in Seireitei in an hour.”

Judging from the reports scrolling across his screen, they might not _have_ an hour.

~*~*~*~*~

“Well.” Tōshirō shades his viewscreen with a hand, activating the long-range scanners built into _Hyōrinmaru’s_ arm to get a better sense of the situation. “This Menos is pretty tall.”

He knows he’s shorter than average (shut up, Matsumoto), but he’s also in a _Jaeger_ , and he still can’t see the top of the Menos’ head. He highly doubts Kuchiki can either. This entire situation is absurd.

His scanner beeps with a measurement result.

Tōshirō does some quick calculations.

“I think we’ll have to stand on top of each other to reach its head.”

The silence from _Senbonzakura_ takes on a faintly disbelieving air.

Tōshirō scowls automatically. He’s never done drift training with Kuchiki before, and he knows better than to attempt a first drift while in the middle of a fight, which means fusion’s out of the question.

“Why not,” Kuchiki finally says.

~*~*~*~*~

“Thanks for picking me up,” Ichigo tells Chad and Tatsuki.

“No problem,” Tatsuki responds. Her eyes are staring forwards, hand shifting on the gearstick.

Chad shoots him a thumbs-up.

Together, they haul _Zangetsu_ out of the water.

~*~*~*~*~

“Scatter,” Byakuya intones.

It’s almost like working with Matsumoto, except _Haineko_ uses plumes of ash instead of metallic shards. Still the same principle, though.

Tōshirō vaults into the safe zone, hooking his footpads into a tree. Before it can collapse under his weight, he’s already in the air, arms outstretched.

Byakuya grunts as _Senbonzakura_ takes the brunt of _Hyōrinmaru’s_ weight on one shoulder, and there’s a moment where everyone’s repulsors are firing madly, before Byakuya manages to compensate for the sudden weight and Tōshirō manages to stabilise himself.

“Get your palm off my faceplate,” Byakuya mutters. “I can’t see.”

“Sorry,” Tōshirō coughs. He straightens, cautiously, and is pleased that he doesn’t immediately fall. Just in case, he puts a hand on _Senbonzakura’s_ head for balance, fingers skimming over the menu buttons.

“Here goes nothing,” he mutters.

 _Senbonzakura’s_ deadly whirlwind calms, bit by bit, until there’s a perfect tunnel forming right in front of Tōshirō’s eyes.

He’s right, Tōshirō thinks viciously.

They’re exactly the same height as the Menos.

He slams both hands down on the firing button for his cryo-plasma cannon.

“ _RY_ _Ū_ _SENKA_!”

~*~*~*~*~

Kisuke watches the red dot blink out of existence on the screen.

Next to him, Yoruichi huffs. “Fine, you’re right,” she says grudgingly.

“Warning, Menos detected!” shouts a technician.

The celebratory mood is gone in an instant, everyone crowding around the screens.

“That’s...”

They watch the readings crest, and surge again.

“That’s a Vasto Lorde,” Akon says, cigarette forgotten in his hand. “It’s too close; it’ll hit shore before _Hy_ _ō_ _rinmaru_ and _Senbonzakura_ can make it back.”

“Any more injured we can pull out of the hospital, Kisuke?” Yoruichi asks, but it’s obvious it was meant to be rhetorical. The garage is empty, there are no more functioning Jaegers left, even if Zaraki can be roused from his medically-induced coma or Unohana persuaded. There’s no way Tessai has finished fixing the _Kenpachi_ yet.

He takes another look at the screen. The satellites have eyes on the Hollow now, and it’s indeed a giant one, armoured from head to tail, covered in vicious-looking spikes.

Functional Jaegers in the garage.

He lifts his mic to his mouth.

“Kisuke?” Yoruichi asks.

He doesn’t respond. She’ll understand soon enough.

Kisuke takes a deep breath, spins on his heel, and runs for the elevator.

“Tessai-san,” he says into the mic. “Will you do me the honour of riding with me one last time?”

For a long, long while, there is nothing but silence.

Kisuke skids out of the elevator at the level of the garage, just in time to see Tessai get up from his seat, throwing his own headset onto the counter.

“Sure thing, Tenchō.”

~*~*~*~*~

With nothing better to do while the helicopters bring his Jaeger back to Seireitei, Ichigo flips through the alert feeds, zooming in on the area around Japan.

 _Senbonzakura_ and _Hyōrinmaru_ , he reads with some confusion. Isn’t Byakuya supposed to be in the hospital?

There’s no Hollow near them, so presumably they’ve already finished with it.

Another flashing dot, much further to the south, catches his attention.

A Vasto Lorde?

Ichigo breathes out a startled curse.

If even _Hyōrinmaru_ and _Senbonzakura_ have been deployed, that means...

Seireitei must be empty.

But no, wait, there’s a pulsing dot on its way to intercept.

Ichigo catches sight of the name.

For a moment he thinks he’s read it wrong.

The dot is labelled _Benihime_.

~*~*~*~*~

They haven’t done this for years, but there are some things you just don’t forget.

Kisuke exhales, slowly.

Tessai’s mind folds around his own, still as warm and welcoming as ever, despite the years and the distance between them, the misunderstandings and the unvoiced grievances.

His leg twinges in phantom pain. A warning.

“We’ll make this fast,” Kisuke promises, and isn’t sure he said it out loud.

Tessai nods, fingers already tapping away at his holo-keyboard. The launch sequence for their shield, Kisuke recognises-feels.

 _Benihime’s_ designed as a chain-disabler, something they’ve stopped building in the interim years, because even Kisuke has never managed to successfully reduce the mental strain of such a manoeuvre to something a single pilot can handle. Not to mention, those smaller Jaegers won’t be able to carry enough fuel tanks to manage that many kidō in a row.

He punches in the starting sequence for _Shibari_ on his own keyboard.

“Visual confirmed,” he speaks into the microphone.

“Acknowledged,” Yoruichi informs them immediately, and it’s like the old days again, _Benihime_ -and- _Shunko_ , darting through the Sea of Hollows, competing to see who got the most kills.

Kisuke exhales out through his mouth.

His hands are steady.

The firing sequence for _Rikujōkōrō_ is flashing through Tessai’s mind, ready to switch techniques at the drop of a hat.

“Engage,” he orders/warns, and pushes their Jaeger forwards.

~*~*~*~*~

“Ten minutes to drop-off,” Tatsuki warns through her helmet-mic.

Ichigo’s knuckles are white, his eyes fixed unblinking on the dots speeding towards each other.

“Got it.”

~*~*~*~*~

 _Shibari_ followed by _Hiasobi_ followed by _Juzutsunagi_ , their favourite opener, but this is a Vasto Lorde. Kisuke knows better than to assume it’s down, and sure enough, there’s its tail – Tessai flicking the shield he’s already prepared up just in time to catch the brunt of its counterattack.

They skid backwards, and Kisuke’s already punching in the sequence for _Kirisaki_ on his keyboard, firing a battalion’s worth of plasma bullets at the Hollow.

It disengages, roaring, but Tessai catches it by one flailing limb and _Rikujōkōrō_ ’s on the tip of his tongue before it can pull away.

Kisuke follows up with a _Saj_ _ō_ _Sabaku_ , blinding golden cords of plasma binding the Hollow in place.

_How’s their fuel –_

Tessai’s already checking the gauge before he can finish the thought.

_Not good. Only half left._

The problems of the First Generation Jaegers –- their techniques are extremely fuel intensive, but their fuel tanks aren’t up to par. He’s got no doubt Tessai has been upgrading _Benihime_ in his spare time these few years, but he can hardly explain away retrofitting the latest fuel tanks to a decommissioned Jaeger.

Kisuke opts for a _Nake_ instead of a more destructive spell, slashing at the less-protected neck region.

Hollow blood sprays everywhere, eating into asphalt like acid, sizzling away on _Benihime’s_ armour.

_It won’t eat through; I’ve upgraded the armour._

Kisuke puts that concern out of his mind.

White slime oozes out of the wound, sealing it back up. In another moment, the Menos is back on its feet, snarling its rage.

“Oh, damn it.”

Tessai can’t do any of their more acrobatic stunts, not with his gimp leg. Plans flicker through Kisuke’s mind, discarded as soon as they form.

“Backup ETA three minutes,” Yoruichi’s voice comes through.

Three minutes. They can do that.

He taps out the sequence for _Ōkasen_ instead, three keys and the firing button, forcing the Hollow to rear back.

“Incoming!”

Kisuke blinks, shaking his head. That voice...

Tessai picks up on his stray thought immediately.

_Tenchō, you really should bring him around one of these days. I’d like to meet him properly._

Kisuke salutes.

 _Bake a tray of cookies and I’ll see what I can do_ , he thinks.

Out loud, he says, “Welcome on board, Ichigo-san.”

~*~*~*~*~

Ichigo kicks at the MASK module ignition, shoves the accelerator lever down with both hands, and braces himself.

With a loud boom, _Zangetsu_ goes _flying_.

He can’t even see, Ichigo acknowledges, tearing his eyes away from the viewscreen to watch the HUD instead.

He adjusts his body slightly, and then hastily leans the other way when _Zangetsu_ overcorrects.

“Warning, imminent collision,” warns the computer.

“That’s the point,” Ichigo mutters.

~*~*~*~*~

Kisuke’s moving almost before he finishes the thought, _Kuy_ _ō_ _Shibari_ slamming into place.

The Hollow thrashes, but it’s not quite enough to break the binding.

“Bakudou #99,” Tessai intones, bringing his hands together, like a prayer. “ _Kin_!”

 _Benihime_ beeps an alarm.

Fuel reserves are running on empty. They won’t be able to squeeze out any more fancy spellwork.

Kisuke starts walking backwards, drawing their sword as they go, and it’s like the years have fallen away.

He – they – can’t run, not at the kind of speed needed to evade an attack, but if that Hollow breaks free, they’re not going to be sitting ducks.

He hears the rumble of thunder before he sees it.

 _Benihime_ crouches, and braces.

 _Zangetsu_ is a miniature comet, slicing through the air so fast, the waters part in towering waves around him.

It collides with the Vasto Lorde with a crash that temporarily deafens Kisuke, even with the pre-emptive adjustments he’s made to the external audio input, a lightning strike cleaving the heavens asunder.

The Vasto Lorde gives a horrific shriek, rearing up, but Kisuke can see it’s badly wounded, its neck half severed.

His fingers find the keys for _Nake_ on instinct, and he lets it fly, a scythe of crimson red.

It slices through the rest of sinew.

 _Benihime_ staggers upright, all of Kisuke’s attention on the waves _Zangetsu_ vanished beneath.

He doesn’t think he breathes until _Zangetsu_ bobs out of the water, a large crater denting its torso.

Tessai groans.

Kisuke sends a wave of assurance his way automatically.

“Well.” Ichigo’s face pops up on the HUD. He looks sheepish. What Kisuke can see of the interior is smoking faintly, wires sparking where they really shouldn’t.

Tessai moans.

“Guess I’m done, then.” Ichigo yanks on a lever, but _Zangetsu_ doesn’t so much as twitch. Undeterred, Ichigo tugs his neural net helmet off, throwing it at the emergency escape hatch trigger.

Next to him, Tessai may be having an aneurysm.

 _Rethinking that invitation?_ Kisuke grins.

Ichigo pauses, turning back around to face the screen.

“Tessai-san, are you okay?”

Kisuke turns around sharply.

Tessai’s brow is beaded with sweat, and he’s slumped in the harness, barely upright.

“Sorry, Tenchō,” he says out loud, and Kisuke can just barely sense a trickle of pain from him. “Think that’s it for me.”

Kisuke unhooks himself from his own harness, jumping over to Tessai’s side. His leg threatens to buckle under him, but he shoves the feeling away. How did he not notice...

“Because I didn’t want to distract you.” Tessai coughs weakly, turning his head to the side. “Don’t blame yourself, Tenchō.”

But how could he not –

Tessai fixes him with a gimlet stare.

Kisuke chuckles weakly. “All right, you win,” he soothes, unbuckling Tessai from the harness and helping him into the emergency escape pod on his side.

It does give him an idea, though.

Even in as much pain as he must be in, Tessai smirks at him, because they’ve never needed a neural drift to tell what the other is thinking.

“Good luck, Tenchō.”

He turns back to the HUD, and that’s when he spots Ichigo still standing there.

“Hey, Kisuke-san,” he’s biting his lip for some reason, “Tessai-san’s out of commission, and so’s _Zangetsu_ , and I was just wondering – can I ride you – I mean, ride with you??”

Even through the blast doors, he can hear Tessai laughing.

Kisuke snorts, and slaps his palm on the eject button.

“Well, my partner certainly doesn’t seem to mind,” he tells Ichigo, and reaches over to Tessai’s keyboard to type in a command. “If you can transfer what’s left of _Zangetsu’s_ power cells over, that would be much obliged.”

~*~*~*~*~

Ichigo’s cheeks are still burning when he climbs into _Benihime’s_ cockpit. He’s glad that Kisuke is turned away, fiddling with some controls on his side. From the look of things, he’s disengaging the power cables from _Zangetsu’s_ cannibalised power generators.

He takes a deep breath, strapping himself into the harness and hooking his helmet into the neural net. It feels the same as _Zangetsu’s_ , although the widened cockpit still throws him for a loop when he glances to the right.

Well, he’s already here, and he’s not backing out.

“Initiating neural handshake,” he croaks.

“Neural handshake initiated,” Kisuke answers, taking his hands off the keyboard.

And then –

_He’s nine, and watching his mother flail for the railing, but the metal bends under her weight and she’s screaming –_

_He’s twenty-four, and there’s a Hollow rampaging through his hometown, shredding the armoured military tanks like wet tissue –_

_He’s twelve, and his Dad’s just managed to get a job more inland, away from the coast, away from the Gargantas._

_He’s twenty-eight, and blinding pain’s shooting through his leg until he nearly blacks out, the sound of Tessai’s screaming still ringing in his ears._

_He’s fifteen, and he walks past a recruitment poster for Jaeger pilots. He stops, and he looks at it._

_He’s thirty-two, toasting Shinji’s promotion to Grand Marshal of the newly-opened Hong Kong Shatterdome. But his real gift is already sitting in Shinji’s quarters, a new upgrade for the Jaegers that Shinji plans to take with him, something that can temporarily overcome the natural limitations of a Jaeger._

_He’s nineteen, carrying his duffel onto the express shuttle to the Seireitei Shatterdome, when he sees Rukia and Renji for the first time._

_He’s thirty-six, deep in the throes of his latest invention, and he hears the sounds of someone moving into the long-empty room next door. Curious, he opens the door –_

_– and nearly runs into a bedraggled blond who looks like he really needs a shave and some sleep._

_– and nearly runs into a scowling redhead who looks like he’s ready to take on the world with his bare fists._

Ichigo-and-Kisuke opens his eyes.

A full drift’s... really different from the partial drifts he’s used to.

_You get used to it._

That’s... that’s Kisuke’s thought, isn’t it?

_Yes._

Great. So, uh...

He reaches out for the holo-keyboard, gaping at the number of keys on it. Unlike the simple version installed in _Zangetsu_ , this is a full QWERTY keyboard.

_We made do with the available tech for the first batch._

Right. Of course.

... how’s he supposed to operate this again?

Kisuke laughs, and it takes Ichigo a moment to realise he’s hearing the sound in his ears and not just in his mind.

“Neural handshake successful,” Kisuke-and-Ichigo reports.

Yoruichi’s face flicker into view on the HUD – separate HUDs, Ichigo notes. They’ve each got one, although it’s smaller than he’s used to.

Old tech, he supposes.

“Good,” Yoruichi is saying, briskly. “Kisuke, about that plan you were describing, can you implement it now?”

_Endless scrolling numbers on a screen, a tablet playing a looped video of a Garganta tearing open, again and again._

Kisuke glances to the side, checking the fuel gauge.

“Yeah, we can do it.”

Ichigo barely has a moment to prepare himself before Kisuke’s moving with purpose, wading deeper into the ocean.

“My right hand is the stone that bridges worlds,” he murmurs, drawing _Benihime’s_ sword with their left hand. “My left hand is the blade that binds reality.”

The hairs are standing up on Ichigo’s arms now.

A warning, _Imminent Overload_ , flashes on the HUD.

Kisuke ignores it. “The black-haired shepherd is hung from a chair. Stratus clouds come, and I strike down the ibis.”

Together, they slam the sword down into the soil.

There’s a terrible, _shredding_ sound, like fabric ripping apart, and a Garganta tears into existence across the sky. It’s smaller than the usual kind they see, Ichigo notes faintly – good. No Hollow will be coming through _this_ one.

 _Just enough_.

Enough – what? Ichigo doesn’t have the time to ask, as Kisuke thrusts the sword straight into the Garganta.

“Ban- _kai_ : Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame.”


	3. Epilogue

“So this is where Ichi-nii works?”

Ichigo smiles, and ruffles Yuzu’s hair. He’s missed this – missed _them_ so much, but things have finally calmed down enough that he feels safe having his sisters visit the coast.

 _Zangetsu_ isn’t quite back in operation yet, unfortunately. Tessai’s been restricted to light duty, and nobody wants to cross Unohana, so repairs have been much slower – which is to say, there are no more miracle feats.

The mechanics are probably sick of seeing Ichigo’s face; but then, he does keep them flush in cookies. Apparently Tessai stress-bakes, and woe betide the person who tries to step into his kitchen these days. Ichigo’s not sure how Kisuke escapes time after time, but he supposes that _that’s_ one of the perks of spending literal years in a full neural drift with someone.

He wonders if Tessai would be amenable to teaching Yuzu the recipe.

Maybe he’ll have Kisuke bring it up.

Karin’s looking around in interest, hands shoved in her pockets.

In contrast to her sister, Yuzu’s a lot more animated, practically bouncing along. “Oh, can we go meet your friends?”

Ichigo does a quick count in his head. Rukia and Renji are still over at the Visored Shatterdome, since they’re down three Jaegers over there. Kensei, Mashiro and Hiyori escaped their harrowing ordeal mostly unscathed – but the same can’t be said for their poor Jaegers. Whatever it is that’s in that disabling fluid, it wrecked the Jaegers pretty badly, destroying the communications array and most of the sensors.

Hachi’s a great mechanic, but it’s still going to take some time.

Yuzu’s peering at him in concern now. “Does Ichi-nii not have any friends?”

Karin elbows her, but there’s a faint furrow in her brow too. “What about the people you always talk about in your emails?”

Well.

 _One_ of them’s going to be around, and well – it’s high time they met each other, too.

Ichigo steels himself for their reactions, and then asks, as casually as he can, “How would you like to meet my boyfriend?”

Karin’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Oh! So you’ve finally gotten together?” chirps Yuzu.

Wait, what?

Ichigo opens his mouth, and then closes it. He can tell when a battle’s been lost.

“Yeah,” he says instead, flicking his phone open. Kisuke’s still at the top of his contacts list, which makes butterflies squirm in the pit of his belly, but he tries to ignore the feeling.

“Hello? Ichigo?”

Even the _sound_ of his voice brings a smile unbidden to Ichigo’s lips, but he gives up trying to hide it. Yuzu worries incessantly about whether he’s _happy_ , and if she’s got proof that he is, maybe that’ll set her heart at ease.

“Hey,” he says into the phone. “Are you, uh, busy?”

He can hear the dull roar of machinery going in the background, and indistinct chatter, but he can’t pinpoint where Kisuke is at the moment. Maybe the basement where the mechanics usually work, or the offices one floor above?

“Mm, not really no –” Kisuke starts to say.

There’s the slam of a door behind him.

“What the hell, Kisuke?” demands a very familiar voice. Grand Marshal Yoruichi? “You can’t just walk out of a meeting like this, even if you’re right –”

A meeting?

“I can… it’s not important,” Ichigo begins. He doesn’t want to keep Kisuke from whatever meeting it is that requires the Grand Marshal’s presence. They’re probably discussing strategy again, now that Kisuke’s version of a Garganta has been proven to have a definite effect on the Hollow invasion. There’s even talk that they might be mounting a small task force _into_ Hueco Mundo next.

Ichigo wants to be a part of that.

“You’re always important,” disagrees Kisuke, and he doesn’t bother muffling the mic when he turns to address Yoruichi. “You know I’m right, and they know I’m right, so I’d rather not waste my time on internal politics over the composition of the scouting team.”

Yoruichi, notably, doesn’t disagree with that assessment.

“That still doesn’t give you the right to – your data analysis programme just finished running, my ass,” she snorts. “That’s just Ichigo on the line, isn’t it?”

Kisuke laughs, for some reason. “Yeah, of course. You’re just sore you don’t have a reason to escape,” he points out.

She huffs, which is as good a concurrence as any. “Fine, I’ll go make your excuses.”

There was the slam of that door again, Yoruichi presumably returning to their meeting.

Ichigo cleared his throat.

“Sorry about that,” Kisuke says immediately, before Ichigo even got a word out. “I’m glad you called, actually. You’re with your sisters, aren’t you?”

He remembered.

Ichigo shouldn’t be surprised, but the butterflies are back again, fluttering madly against his ribcage. He thinks he might actually be blushing, judging by Karin and Yuzu’s wide-eyed stares.

“Right.” He coughs again. “Well, uh, that is – are you free for lunch? They want to meet you.”

He can practically _hear_ Kisuke’s startled pause.

“Yes…” Kisuke recovers fast. “Yes, of course. Now?”

“If…” No matter what he told Yoruichi where Ichigo could hear him, Kisuke _did_ just walk out of an important meeting to take this call. “Only if you’re sure you’re free?”

“I am,” Kisuke assures him. Ichigo has his own misgivings, but he trusts Kisuke to make his own decisions.

“I’ll see you in my quarters?” he asks. Boyfriend of a Command officer or not, Ichigo is still a lowly cadet, and only has access to the main mess hall. Kisuke usually grabs an extra plate for him from the officer’s mess on days that they have dinner together.

“Half an hour,” Kisuke confirms. He doesn’t hang up, though, just starts walking – Ichigo can hear the echo of the corridor, the whirring of machines in the background.

Ichigo bites his lip and snaps his phone shut decisively, well aware of the two pairs of eyes watching his every move.

Yuzu looks like she’s got hearts in her eyes.

Even Karin cracks a grin.

“I can’t wait to meet him.” Yuzu claps her hands together. “Anyone who can make you smile like that must be a wonderful person, Ichi-nii!”

Ichigo shakes his head ruefully. He knows his face is still doing stupid things, but he can’t make it stop. “I’m glad you guys like him already.”

Really, it could be a lot worse. They could hate him – and then where would Ichigo be?

“Just don’t embarrass me too much,” he warns, half-heartedly.

“It could be worse,” Karin points out, with a grin that says nothing good about the amount of blackmail Kisuke may be about to receive. “Goat-Face could’ve come along.”

Ichigo shudders at the thought.

He still can’t stop grinning the whole walk to his quarters, though.

**Author's Note:**

> [cywscross's UraIchi Discord server](https://discordapp.com/invite/ADFnKTZ#_=_) | [Starrie's server](https://discord.gg/8yJVmbD) | [Tumblr](http://starriewolf.tumblr.com)


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